Over the last week or two it feels like we’re leaving summer behind and tip-toeing into Autumn. The summer break is ending and it’s the beginning of a new term for many. We have two grandchildren who have started in reception and we’ve watched one launch in confidently and the other much more cautiously. It’s a new beginning for the children and their parents.

September always brings change and is marked by beginnings and endings.

Sometimes, the change is predictable and needs careful planning such as buying a school uniform, getting a new timetable, starting a new training course. At other times, the change is unexpected and even unwelcome. The recent sad news of the accident where Steve and Kathy Burch tragically lost their lives has cut across everyone’s hopes and plans for this term. We remember their children and wider family as they grieve and try to come to terms with this unexpected and terrible event. For many of us here in the Minster churches who knew them, there’s a lingering sadness that we can’t shake off quickly or easily.

At this time of year, we are reminded that ‘letting go’ is part of life. The trees all around us have been in leaf and then blossom, bursting with life and colour. But as Autumn draws in, the leaves fall and die and are drenched by nature’s tears. The trees look lifeless and bare and stand silently.

Yet we know that, in time, warmer days return and the trees will burst back into life with fresh vigour. It’s a bright picture of hope that death gives way to life and there’s unseen growth in the waiting time.

The author of the book of Lamentations wrote these words in a time of desolation and sadness:-

Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope:
Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail. Lam 3:21-22

You and I can know and experience this love in the midst of life’s beginnings and endings. The love and faithfulness of God is the constant in the midst of change and God our Heavenly Father will never let us go. In Him we have hope!

In one of my favourite hymns, also written at a time of great sadness, George Mattheson penned the words you see here. In his sadness, he felt held and carried by the “love that wilt not let me go”.

Focus on this love in the weeks ahead. Listen to this song again. Remember you are deeply loved and tell those around you that they are loved too.

♥ ♥ ♥ With every blessing as the seasons change… Steve

O Joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to thee.
I trace the rainbow through the rain,
and feel the promise is not vain,
that morn shall tearless be.